The Book of Cats

You don't need to be a lover of cats, or kittens, to enjoy this extravagantly illustrated anthology of stories, poems and pictures of our old furred friends, but it is probably better if you are. The editors have made a clever choice of words and pictures, which has a certain amount of whimsy but impresses overall with its originality. There are wonderful photographs, paintings and drawings...from every imaginable old masters, contemporary painting, obscure engravings...The writing ranges from Kipling and Dorothy L. Sayers to Walter de la Mare and William Carlos Williams, from P.G. Wodehouse to Paul Verlaine, T.S. Eliot to Charles Baudelaire, Thomas Hardy to Jean-Paul Sartre"" - The Sunday Tribune. ""Superb...The pictures alone are worth the money"" - The Guardian.

Martin Booth (1944-2004) was the bestselling author of novels including "Hiroshima Joe, Islands of Silence", and "The Industry of Souls", which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another novel, A" Very Private Gentlemen", was adapted into the 2010 movie, The American, starring George Clooney. He also wrote several nonfiction books, including "Cannabis: A History, Opium: A History", and the memoir "Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood". Booth was born in England, but spent much of his childhood in Hong Kong, a location that would deeply inspire his writing. He moved back to England at the age of 20, and started his literary career as a poet. He worked as a schoolmaster, a job he held until 1985, when the success of Hiroshima Joe allowed him to devote himself full-time to his writing. At the time of his death in 2004, he was living in Devon, England.